I am just as excited as the rest of you when it comes to Push Notifications on the iPhone. This is Apple’s “solution” to the battery draining effects of background processes, but I can’t help but question some of the Developer’s intentions for Push Notifications.

Developers are allowed to use Push Notifications at their will; they just send a message to Apple’s Push Notification Server which will then send an Icon, Message and/or sound to your iPhone. This is a good way to keep in touch, because not only does the application stay closed until you get to it, but you get notified when something happens.

Now I ask the question, what if nothing has happened? Can a developer send a notification to your iPhone in the form of an Ad? Most Free Applications remain free because they are supported by Ads. I am not saying that using advertisements to keep an application free is a bad thing, but I do not want to be alerted to look at an advertisement. See where I am going here?

Scenario: You are sitting in a meeting with a client, and you forgot to put your phone on silent. You told most of your friends that you had a meeting that day, so you are not expecting any Calls, Emails, SMS Messages, etc. However, there is one thing you forgot about… The Fart Application you downloaded a month ago for Free. The developer has just updated the application to support the new Push Service provided by Apple. He needs more revenue to keep the application free, and decides that in order to do this he will send advertisements to the users of his app. Even better, he as attached the “Fart” Sound File to that notification. You are one of the lucky recipients of that Ad. Your phone goes off for no apparent reason other than the developer wanted to send you an advertisement. Because of the “childish” noise made by the app, you could potentially loose your client. What do you do next? Delete the app? NO! You upgrade to the 99¢ version of the app that gets rid of all the advertisements and notifications… Way to stick it to the man.

I can only hope that none of the developers abuse the Push Notification Service. Keep in mind, I have no idea whether or not Apple has a ban on this use of the Service or not, so if you know anything, or have something to add please leave it in the comments.